Self-closing lacing-hook



(No Model.)

LA ROY S. UPTON.

SELF CLOSING LAGING HOOK.

Patented Jan. 21

- WITNESSES."

lNVENTOH A TTOHNEYS.

M. FHOYO-LI'IHOVWASNINGFUK D.C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LA ROY S. UPTON, OF GOVERNORS ISLAND, NEXV YORK.

SELF-CLOSING LAClNG-HOOK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 553,478, dated January 21, 1896. Application filed April 10, 1895 Serial No. 545,242. (No model.)

To aZl whom it may concern:

Be it kIIOWIl that I, LA ROY S. UPTON, of Governors Island, New York, have invented a new and Improved Self-Closing Lacing- Hook, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention is a self-closing hook, par-.

ticularly adapted for use on shoes, gloves, and other articles whose adjacent edges require to be drawn together by means of a lacing string or cord.

The hook is formed of two parts, the fixed partbeing the body composed of a base so constructed that it is adapted to be seated and secured upon the leather, and provided at one side with a vertical arm or hook proper, and the other movable part being a lower swinging arm, which is pivoted to such basearm and normally closes the open side of the hook, thus confining and protecting the string or lace. These general features, and other minor ones which also embody my invention in its practical form, will be hereinafter de scribed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a reduced front elevation of the improvement as applied on ashoe. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the improvement. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the gate. Fig. 4 is a plan view of the same. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the body. Fig. 6 is a plan view of the same, and Fig. 7 is a sectional side elevation of the improvement.

The improved lacing-hook consists of two parts-the fixed portion or body A and a gate B, hung on the body-as hereinafter more fully described. The body A is provided with a base-plate A, formed on its under side with a clinching-flange A adapted to engage the material C and to be clinched thereon in the usual manner, and, as indicated in Fig.1, to

fasten the body A to the leather or other article.

From the base A extends upwardly an arm A carrying a pivot A engaging the middle portion of the U-shaped gate B, provided with a forward arm B adapted to open and to close the body at the front end of the base A. The inner and narrower arm B of the gate B, when the latter is in normal or closed position, lies in a recess A formed in the inner side of the vertical base-arm A and is held therein by the lateral pressure of the 1acing-string D, as shown by Figs. 1 and 7, whereby the outer and broader gate-arm B is also held closed upon the base, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 7. Thus the said outer arm B of the gate and the fixed arm A of the base constitute a broad, symmetrical, bridge-like projection of the base A.

It is apparent that by drawing the string D outward or laterally against the arm B of the gate, the latter will be opened and the string thereby automatically disengaged from the hook. Its re-engagement is readily effected by the reverse operationnamely, by passing the string laterally between the arms of the gate when open or raised and drawing the string taut.

What I claim is- As an improved article of manufacture, the lacing hook composed of the body having a base provided with a clinching flange, and a broad vertical arm fixed on one side of said base, and having an interior longitudinal recess, and the U -shaped, swinging gate, pivoted at its angle to the apex of the base arm, its narrower arm fitting in the recess of the latter, and its broadened outer arm extending down upon the base and normally closing the open side of the hook, as shown and described.

LA ROY S. UPTON.

\Vitnesses:

THEo. G. I-IOsTER, J NO. M. BITTER. 

